Health and safety

The safety and wellbeing of our employees and those in our care is one of our key priorities. Our goal is zero harm.

To enable us to secure the world for our customers and the communities we serve, we must prioritise the safety as well as the health and well-being of our employees. It is our responsibility to ensure that our colleagues return home from work safely every day.

The nature of our work and the environments we operate in mean that security and safety present a strategic risk to our business. We believe that setting the highest standards for health and safety across our industry helps to keep our colleagues safe and builds loyalty and commitment to G4S among our employees. Leading by example and having expertise in health and safety gives not only our employees, but also our customers and other stakeholders, confidence in the values of the company that they are working with.

We recognise that our businesses operate in different contexts and face varying levels of risk. The Group health and safety strategy sets the framework and provides a vision of how each business can progress from a level of compliance with health and safety regulation to a level of differentiation where G4S leads the industry in health and safety practice.

All businesses within the group assess their performance against a set of core health and safety standards. Compliance is monitored and periodically audited with reviews of performance at regional, group and board level via the CSR Committee.

PROGRESS IN 2016

The process of building capability to continuously improve our management of health and safety, eliminating fatal incidents and potentially fatal risks, continued during 2016:

Improvement programmes targeting high priority countries have continued, with support and oversight provided by both the Group and the regions. Deep dive reviews of safety were conducted in seven priority countries and programmes were also introduced for specific risk areas, such as motorcycle safety.

The Group’s core health and safety standards were revised in 2016. The implementation was supported by the introduction of formal guidance as well as training for health and safety practitioners across the Group.

A further online training module was introduced covering the minimum health and safety requirements for G4S businesses. Since 2015 over 3,000 managers have completed online health and safety training modules.

All businesses completed health and safety control self-assessments based on the group’s core standards as part of the Group's risk and compliance systems. Actions and timelines were drafted to address any issues that arose.

Online incident management and action tracking was introduced in selected businesses. This programme will only continue in businesses where it is considered that it will deliver a tangible improvement in health and safety performance.

During 2016, 47 of our colleagues lost their lives in work-related incidents, principally as a result of attacks by third parties and road traffic incidents. This is a tragic loss for their families, friends and colleagues and reminds us of the importance of our efforts when it comes to health and safety.

All fatal and permanently disabling incidents are reported at a Group level and investigated through a specific process, led by the managing director of the business concerned.

On a comparative basis, work-related fatalities increased to 47 fatalities in 2016 from 46 fatalities in 2015. The number of road traffic-related fatalities has decreased by 20% since 2013 when the road safety programme was launched. However, the number of fatal attacks, particularly in our Cash Solutions businesses, has increased. Action plans to prevent further incidents have been put in place. Each G4S business is required to have a process for reporting and investigating workplace injuries. Improvement targets are set at business level and are based on factors such as the business risk profile and local statutory reporting requirements.

During 2016, the Group’s lost time injury frequency rate was 0.33 per 100,000 hours worked, based on reporting that covered 96% of employees. This is compared to a rate of 0.36 in 2015. The reduction is due to both an increase in coverage of reporting and a reduction in the rates in some of the businesses which had previously higher rates.

There were nine non-natural deaths in custody in 2016. All deaths in custody are investigated by the relevant authorities, who make a determination of the cause of death. Seven of these incidents were due to self-harm. Pronouncements will be made by the relevant coroner on the two remaining incidents following their investigations.

PRIORITIES FOR 2017

During 2017, we will continue to work towards our goal of zero harm, by:

Drafting action plans for businesses which have had multiple fatalities, as well as monitoring their implementation.

Enhancing the performance management process through tracking incidents which have the potential to result in a fatality, and to improve the coverage of lost time incident reporting to 98%.

Continuing to build health and safety capability within the group, which includes a review of frontline health and safety training.

Revising the G4S Golden Rules of Safety to ensure that they reflect the potentially fatal hazards front line employees face.

focus on safety

G4S Regulated Security Solutions (USA), a leading provider of security services to the nuclear power industry in North America, has initiated a comprehensive safety programme.

During 2016, we reviewed our screening policy and practices, particularly for high risk employees such as those carrying firearms or working in hostile environments.This will lead to the development of a Group-wide training programme for HR and recruitment practitioners.

During 2015, G4S India ran a safety programme for employees using motorcycles,

More than 900 employees across the country took part and new personal protective equipment was introduced to improve the visibility of motorcyclists.

India

The aim of the programme was to raise safety awareness as well as ensuring compliance with the G4S Driving Force Rules.

The programme was reinforced by an extensive communication campaign. New personal protective equipment was introduced to improve the visibility of motorcyclists and other security officers who work in close proximity to vehicles.